![]() ![]() But Ashanti doesn’t describe that situation with any depth or intensity. Plenty of people have found themselves stuck in situations like that one. When the song ends, Ashanti’s narrator is in the same place where she was at the beginning. ![]() Ashanti never resolves anything, and we don’t get any pat lessons about standing up for yourself. But since the song is light on specifics, it’s probably going for the tropes that everyone already knows, and the cheating lover is a classic songwriting trope.Įven though the storytelling on “Foolish” is fuzzy and indistinct, it still lays out a recognizable scenario. There’s a line about “when I’m home, I’m always alone, and you are always gone.” Maybe the boyfriend is a workaholic. Ashanti never says what this guy is doing that’s so bad, but she implies that he’s cheating. She’s sad when she’s with him, but she’s sadder without him. She knows that he’s doing her wrong, but she still can’t tear herself away. He also gave her a concept.Īshanti wrote “Foolish” from the perspective of a girl whose boyfriend treats her like garbage. That’s a lot of pressure.” Gotti reassured Ashanti that he knew what he was doing, and he asked her to ignore her misgivings and write a song to that beat. I don’t want to come out as a new artist with one of Biggie’s classic records. In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number 1 Hits, Ashanti remembers what she told Gotti the first time that she heard the beat: “Come on, Irv. Ashanti didn’t think that was a good idea. In 2002, Irv Gotti used the Puff Daddy strategy to take a sample that Puffy himself had already used, feeding on nostalgia for the nostalgia-based Bad Boy era. In 1997, Puff Daddy had become an unstoppable pop force with a series of singles that relied on instantly-familiar samples. There’s something almost devious about that sample choice. But nothing lasts forever, and “Foolish,” Ashanti’s debut single, would also be her last time at #1. It felt like I lived entire lifetimes while that song was at #1. And then “Foolish” fell out of the #1 spot. I started dating a girl, and then I stopped dating her. I went to a lot of shows and made a lot of friends. Then I got sick of of putting Pfizer-branded disposable cameras into mailing packages, walked off the job one day, found another job selling shitty furniture in East Baltimore, and moved into my first apartment. I put a lot of Pfizer-branded disposable cameras into mailing packages while “Foolish” played on the radio in the warehouse. By the time the song fell from that top spot, I took my finals, graduated, moved back home with my parents, and got a temp job putting Pfizer-branded disposable cameras into mailing packages. I was a senior in college when “Foolish” reached #1. “Foolish” topped the Hot 100 for an astonishing 10 weeks, ruling the chart deep into the summer of 2002. Given all that buildup, it would’ve been at least a little bit shocking if Ashanti’s first single didn’t get to #1.Īshanti’s first single did get to #1, and then it stayed there forever. I can’t even imagine what was happening in Ashanti’s head during those few months. ![]() Maybe it felt like it would last forever. And this was all happening as Ashanti was finally, at long last, debuting. Her chart takeover was sudden and immediate. For a little while in the spring of 2002, Ashanti was on three of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. ![]()
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